Each year shorebirds from North and South America migrate thousands of miles to spend the summer in the Arctic. There they feed in shoreline marshes and estuaries along some of the most productive ...and pristine coasts anywhere. With so much available food they are able to reproduce almost explosively; and as winter approaches, they retreat south along with their offspring, to return to the Arctic the following spring. This remarkable pattern of movement and activity has been the object of intensive study by an international team of ornithologists who have spent a decade counting, surveying, and observing these shorebirds. In this important synthetic work, they address multiple questions about these migratory bird populations. How many birds occupy Arctic ecosystems each summer? How long do visiting shorebirds linger before heading south? How fecund are these birds? Where exactly do they migrate and where exactly do they return? Are their populations growing or shrinking? The results of this study are crucial for better understanding how environmental policies will influence Arctic habitats as well as the far-ranging winter habitats used by migratory shorebirds.
The world faces an environmental crisis unprecedented in human history. Carbon dioxide levels have reached heights not seen for three million years, and the greatest mass extinction since the time of ...the dinosaurs appears to be underway. Such far-reaching changes suggest something remarkable: the beginning of a new geological epoch. It has been called the Anthropocene. The Birth of the Anthropocene shows how this epochal transformation puts the deep history of the planet at the heart of contemporary environmental politics. By opening a window onto geological time, the idea of the Anthropocene changes our understanding of present-day environmental destruction and injustice. Linking new developments in earth science to the insights of world historians, Jeremy Davies shows that as the Anthropocene epoch begins, politics and geology have become inextricably entwined.
During the International Year of Planet Earth (2007-2009), the Department of Earth Sciences of Turin University and a local Museum of Natural History promoted a project entitled, Understanding how ...the Earth works: from local situations to global processes. In this context, two geothematic exhibitions on the Cape Verde Archipelago were designed and staged in local museums. The exhibition called Getting to know a volcano in order to live with it was the subject of action research that involved the design of interactive activities and the analysis of data collected during guided tours conducted with students of different ages. This study allowed the demonstration of the effectiveness of teaching strategies in which relevant Earth sciences topics are proposed, like risk and sustainable development, thus stimulating debate among the students. This approach enhances the cultural experience of individuals by sharing it with other people. The aim was to widen their awareness of the cultural value of the territory, and to stimulate a new critical way of thinking about the Earth sciences. These didactic tools were further developed when they were proposed and pursued by experienced museum guides and teachers, who were able to involve not only institutions (museums and schools) in the knowledge construction process, but also families, relatives and the local community.
Mapping Agriculture on Mars Costa de Beauregard, Raphaëlle
Caliban (Toulouse, France : 2014),
06/2019, Volume:
61, Issue:
61
Journal Article
Open access
Le film de science-fiction de Ridley Scott, The Martian/Seul sur Mars (2015) joue sur plusieurs sources d'intérêt pour le spectateur. D'une part le film comporte de brillantes séquences consacrées à ...la technologie de la NASA telles que la récupération du robot Pathfinder et sa remise en marche, ou encore le ravitaillement du vaisseau spatial par une sonde chinoise, et l'acquisition par le vaisseau spatial de l'énergie produite par la gravitation de la planète Terre. D'autre part, certaines séquences au milieu du film montrent comment l'astronaute Watney, laissé pour mort sur la planète Mars à la suite d'un accident, réussit à survivre en faisant pousser des pommes de terre, car il est aussi botaniste. Le film donne ainsi un nouveau visage aux dangereux Martiens de la science-fiction, à savoir les dangers réels pour un être vivant sur la planète morte tels que l'absence totale d'oxygène et d'eau. Ceux-ci sont aussi une image en miroir de l'importance de conserver une terre arable, voire du terreau fertile, sur notre planète.
ABSTRACT
In a 1991 editorial in The FASEB Journal, Robert W. Erauss commented on a recent report of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program (Augustine report). He ...concluded that, although a manned mission to Mars with lif e sciences as the priority was endorsed by the Committee, it failed to deal realistically with one huge gap; biological sciences have never been given high priority. According to Krauss, this left a void that will cripple, perhaps fatally, any early effort to ensure long‐term survival on any mission of extended duration. The gap included insufficient flight time for fundamental biological space research and insufficient funds. Krauss expressed his opinions 15 years ago. Have we better knowledge of space biology now? This question becomes more acute now that President George W. Bush recenüy proposed a manned return to the moon by 2015 or 2020, with the moon to become our staging post for manned missions to Mars. Will we be ready so soon? A review of the progress in the last 15 years suggests that we will not. Because of the Columbia disaster, flight opportunities for biological sciences in shuttle spacelabs and in Space Station laboratories compete with time for engineering problems and construction. Thus, research on gravity, radiation, and isolation loses out to problems deemed to be of higher priority. Radiation in deep space and graded gravity in space with on board centrifuges are areas that must be studied before we undertake prolonged space voyages. Very recent budgetary changes within National Aeronautics and Space Administration threaten to greatly reduce the fundamental space biology funds. Are we ready for a trip to Mars? Like Krauss 15 years ago, I think not for some time.—Haddy, F. J. NASA‐has its biological groundwork for a trip to Mars improved? FASEB J. 21, 643–646 (2007
PDF
